Abstract
No survey of clinically important immunological phenomena would be complete without consideration of the functions of phagocytic cells. They play a pivotal role in the immune response by kiling microbes, by presenting antigens to lymphocytes and by serving as supportive, accessory cells to lymphocytes, at least partly by releasing soluble factors. The phagocytes of the body, professional and non professional, consist of two specialized groups of cells: granulocytes, which can be mobilized rapidly and which reach inflamed sites quickly and in large numbers, and which are highly efficient at dealing with many types of injury and infection but which have no capacity for differentiation and live only a short time; and the mononuclear phagocyte system consisting partly of motile cells which respond initially more slowly than neutrophils but which can differentiate in sites of inflammation into cells which are more efficient in various functions than the cells from which they originated. Many mononuclear phagocytes are fixed cells located in tissues where they act as trays or filters for material circulating through the tissue. Phagocytes, which usually function as the primary defender in infections, have also been implicated as effector cells in several conditions characterized by a destructive inflammatory response.
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